Research Africa Visits CU

Research Africa, represented by its Senior Customer Support Consultant, Mr. Sean Intiomale, paid a courtesy visit to Covenant University today, November 27, 2014. The visitor was hosted at the Vice-Chancellor’s conference room in Canaan Land, Ota.

In her welcome remarks at the occasion, the Deputy Vice Chancellor, Professor Taiwo Abioye, who represented the Vice Chancellor, Professor Charles Korede Ayo, appreciated the visitor on behalf of the Management of the University. She stated, “We appreciate your being here at this time and wanting to assist in the area of research; knowing the importance of research as a basis for serious academic interventions. We are very committed to this, especially looking at webometric ranking and knowing that external research fundings, grants and fellowships count to make us 1 of 10 in10. We are passionately driving research.”

She further explained, “We have 18 Research Clusters right now in the University, which are interdisciplinary and the idea is for us to come out with very strong research papers. By the time your organization provides a workshop platform for our faculty, I am sure they will be more guided on how best to go about research grant proposal writing and thereby, make more impact and reduce resource wastage for the University.”

In his remarks, the Registrar, Dr. Olumuyiwa Oludayo stated, “We are most delighted that we can take our long existing relationship with Research Africa to a new level; especially now that our drive towards attaining our goal of becoming one of the top 10 Universities in the world within 10 years is at its peak. I am glad we can review our relationship and take it forward.”

While making his remarks, Research Africa’s representative, Mr. Sean Intiomale expressed his gratitude for the warm welcome from the Management of Covenant University, and asked for reviews on how the relationship of his organization with the university can move forward.

Mr. Intiomale stated, “We wanted to meet the Management of Covenant University because we wanted to know your vision and to understand your needs. We also wanted to know how the research platform of the University operates and know if there’s a way we can come in, especially, looking at your goal towards becoming one of the top 10 universities in the world. We look forward to supporting you in any way we can, so, do not hesitate to talk to us about it. We also wanted to understand how the University currently utilizes the research publication platform. This way, we can understand how the relationship between Covenant University and Research Africa can go further in helping you meet your needs.”

In his remarks, the Director of Centre for Research, Innovation and Discovery (CUCRID), Professor Louis Egwari, requested that Research Africa should encourage grant writers by acknowledging their grant applications. He stated that the current trend of not responding to applications makes it hard for researchers to know which areas they have issues and are therefore discouraged from making future attempts.

The Director of Centre for Learning Resources, Dr. Christopher Nkiko, in his remarks, stated, “Covenant University has had a robust relationship with Research Africa up to this time. It is also on record that Covenant University, as an institution, has a lot of research funding internally, but this does not provide enough competition to drive the world class status goal of the University.”

Dr. Nkiko advised that the University faculty should be encouraged to work towards grant awards outside the university in other to create the right level of competition required for becoming a world class faculty. He also said it was not enough to apply or compete, but that CU faculty should actually aim for results. He requested for a training arrangement by Research Africa for the University research faculty, in other to equip them with enough skills for successful grant writing, thereby reducing waste of time and resources.

While responding to the remarks, Mr. Intiomale stated that capacity building was indeed a very important need of the University and that Research Africa would work towards training for CU faculty. He said his organization would approach a couple of accomplished grant researchers to consent to conducting a grant proposal-writing workshop, which would involve practical tests afterwards.

Mr. Intiomale, however, said that Research Africa and Covenant University would have to work out the best time for the training to commence and how long it would last.

Also at the occasion were the Director, Vice Chancellor’s Office, Dr. Adewale Omotayo Osibanjo and members of the Directorate of Media and Corporate Affairs.